Friday, January 9, 2009

Linux, PhotoShop, And Disney.

Back in 2000, I took my first trip ever to Walt Disney World. I was the guest of my syndicate DBR Media. At the time, DBR Media was just launching and I was drawing my comic Strip George for them, as well as a few other cartoon features. We made a day of it! It was a wonderful time (especially for a cartoonist like me!) and the above picture is proof of my visit.

Who knew that almost nine years later I would be writing about Disney, Linux and Photoshop?

Yes, I admit that many folks out there really prefer Photoshop over every other graphics app. Eve though the Gimp is as featured packed and as easy to use, folks just prefer Photoshop. I understand. But the challenge was always that Photoshop was not being written for Linux. The folks at Adobe made Photoshop for Windows and Mac, but not Linux. Enter Disney.

At around the same time as my trip to Walt Disney World (give or take a few years), the Disney animation studio was adopting Linux. The animators wanted Photoshop running on Linux. Since Adobe wasn't providing this, Disney decided to fund a project to port the Windows version of Photosop to run on Linux under Wine. And that's why, thanks to Disney, Photoshop runs on Linux.

And that's the main point of today's blog post. Photoshop runs on Linux! Some folks out there may not want to make the move to Linux because they think they wouldn't be able to use Photoshop. Not so. Photoshop runs on Linux!

The easiest way to run Photoshop involves a small investment. Codeweavers makes a commercial version of WINE called CrossOver. The standard version costs only $40.00. You install Crossover, then you simply grab your Windows version of PhotoShop (version 6 and 7 run great!), install, and you're all set! You're running Photoshop in Linux at optimum processor speed.

You can also download and install Wine from your Linux repository and then install Photoshop to this. But, in speaking with Photoshop users, version 7 works best when running under Crossover.

Plus, Crossover and Wine support many other Windows applications (MSOffice, etc.). So, if you want to move to Linux and still be able to run some of your Windows applications, Crossover and Wine make it possible!

10 comments:

Anonymous
said...

No need to use outdate Photoshop versions with LInux. To run Photoshop CS2 or CS3 (Creative Suite versions, and far superior to version 7, much less version 6), install the free Sun xVM Virtual Box. Then install your copy of Windows and any Windows programs, including Adobe products. If you have a legitimate copy of Photoshop, you probably have a legitimate copy of Windows.

I well understand the need for PS in the commercial world. Gimp offers a lot for the average user. Even so, some people cannot get used to the interface or the Gimp's layout. They prefer PS because they've used it a good number of years and are comfortable with it or their job simply demands it.

Still, Gimp has a lot of features when compared to PS and other graphics apps.

I'm a nationally syndicated cartoonist. I use the Gimp. I do know what I'm talking about.

Thanks so much for the updated information and link.:) Great to see that Wine and Linux are moving forward for PS. It's a terrific OS, but especially, the Linux users are the ones that make it so great!